wendy and lucy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

No skipping this week! Bump a couple of these up to "buy" if your budget allows.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story of a man who ages backwards becomes a staggering, three-hour demonstration of superb make-up and seamless computer effects under the direction of David Fincher. Despite the length, only one note is played -- everyone else's pity for "poor Benjamin" -- while the man himself (Brad Pitt) remains a frustrating cipher. With Cate Blanchett and Taraji P. Henson. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Last Chance Harvey
While in London for his daughter's wedding, New York jingle-writer Dustin Hoffman romances Emma Thompson. "A movie for grown-ups, but not in that clammy, Oscar-craving way that would make it untenable; it's a movie about people that takes place in the real world," said James Rocchi in his review for Cinematical. Directed by Joel Hopkins. Also on Blu-ray. Rent it.

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Wendy and Lucy
Michelle Williams stars as "a down-on-her-luck girl who's hoping to turn things around for herself with a summer job at a fishing cannery in Alaska," wrote Kim Voynar in her Cinematical review. When her car breaks down and her beloved dog goes missing in a small town in Oregon, she is "forced to make a series of increasingly difficult choices, and to rely upon the kindness (or not) of strangers to resolve her plight." Directed by Kelly Reichardt (the superb Old Joy), who "excels at capturing these small, very human moments in the overall stories of her characters' lives." Rent it.

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After the jump: Indies on DVD, Blu-ray, and Collector's Corner!

Most of us complain about the Academy Awards, which will be presented next Sunday, but most of us can't do anything about them. In the first place, most of us can't even vote for them!

Ah, but the Independent Spirit Awards are different: almost anyone can vote for them. All you have to do is become a member of Los Angeles-based Film Independent (annual membership: $95) and then register to vote.

The Film Nest has an interesting article on someone who went through the process. Film Independent members in general have no input into the nomination process, but after the nominations were announced, members could choose to receive DVD screeners of the nominees or attend special, one-time-only screenings at a local theater. Ultimately only eight of the 30-plus nominated films were made available on screeners, so conscientious voters had to trek down to the theater if they hadn't already seen the nominees.

With all the attention given to the Oscars, and more recently to the Berlin film fest and the concurrent European Film Market, "it may be easy to forget that the Independent Spirit Awards happen next weekend," as Matt Dentler blogs, He discusses the nominees for Best Feature (Ballast, Frozen River, Rachel Getting Married, Wendy and Lucy, The Wrestler) and other categories, and gives his thoughts on who might win. There's a lot of "Who knows?" inherent in the Spirit Awards, and part of that is because voting is so much more open than the Academy.

That openness is just one of the reasons why the Spirit Awards are so much fun to watch. The awards will be presented in Santa Monica, California, next Saturday afternoon, February 21, and you can watch the show live on cable channel IFC and rebroadcast later that evening on AMC.

Last-ish but not least-ish so far as awarding year-end, um, awards goes, the Online Film Critics Society has decided to honor Wall-E with its top prize, not to mention Best Original Screenplay and Best Animated Feature.

Numbers-wise, The Dark Knight and Let the Right One In co-dominated with four awards each. Christopher Nolan took home Best Director for the former, which also won Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger's performance, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. The latter won Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Foreign Language Film, and both Breakthrough awards -- for director Tomas Alfredson and young actress Lina Leandersson.

It was then The Wrestler with two wins (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress), and one awards each for Wendy and Lucy (Best Actress), Man on Wire (Best Documentary), and Slumdog Millionaire (Best Editing). Truth be told, I'm kind of glad to see the love spread around, although I say that with an already established fondness for most of these films, and even if I wasn't the biggest fan of Wendy and Lucy, I can admit that it got just the award it deserves.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Hugh Jackman returns to the role of the adamantium-clawed Wolverine. I loved the first two X-Men features and even kind of liked the third one, but the idea of Wolvie going solo without the rest of Xavier's crew leaves me kind of cold. Start sharpening your claws for a May 1 release.

Eden Log
The trailer for this French film is delightfully vague. Apparently the movie portrays a bleak future set in a subterranean world. I'm not real clear on the details, but the imagery is fascinating. This one goes into limited release in February.

I Love You, Man
Paul Rudd plays a man about to get married, but finds himself without male friends and in need of a best man. Soon he's good pals with Sydney (Jason Segel), but his relationship with his fiance begins to suffer. Both of these actors have made me laugh before, but I don't know about this one. Spread the love on March 20.

Against the Dark
Another zombie apocalypse? Nope, it's a vampire apocalypse this time, and with much of the world's population annihilated our only hope is a group of vampire hunters led by -- wait for it -- Steven Seagal. I'm not a Seagal fan but I can see this one having a certain B movie appeal. It comes out on February 10.

Whoa! Keanu Reeves may have won the popularity contest with his one-note performance as an alien, but specialty audiences came out in big numbers for a variety of limited releases, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. In addition to the films mentioned by Eugene in his overall look at the charts -- Gran Torino, Doubt, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire -- other good performers included Steven Soderbergh's Che and Gus Van Sant's Milk. Che inspired sell-outs at the two theaters where it opened in New York and Los Angeles, despite its four-hour plus running-time. Milk expanded to 328 theaters and had a per-screen average just a little less than The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Amidst that high-powered competition, Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy more than held its own, earning $10,700 per screen at the two theaters in New York (Film Forum) and Los Angeles (Laemmle Sunset 5) where it opened. No doubt the film benefited from the presence of Michelle Williams in the lead role, which is an odd thing in itself. Her celebrity status, such as it is, accrues from her relationship with Heath Ledger, but her own career, especially post-Dawson's Creek, bespeaks her interest in pursuing roles in the most independent of films.

If Williams' name value makes more people curious to check out Wendy and Lucy, so much the better. Summarizing the reviews, Eric D. Snider wrote: "The consensus is that it's a tender, beautifully shot, emotionally intimate little film." Reichardt's previous film, Old Joy, was a quiet masterpiece. Wendy and Lucy expands into suburban Los Angeles this coming Friday, and then it will slowly roll out to other theaters nationwide over the next couple of months.

Not that it's any of my business, but are your halls decked? Is your gay apparel donned? Good! Then you have time to go to the movies, and the Indie Spotlight is here to tell you what's playing beyond the multiplexes!

'Tis the season for limited-release pictures that are sort of indie films and sort of studio productions. For example, this weekend there's Doubt (in NY, LA, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco), The Reader (NY and LA), and Che (NY and LA) -- but you've heard plenty about those films elsewhere. There's also Delgo, which is a truly independent animated film -- but it's opening on 1,800 screens, so you don't need me to tell you about it here.

Our focus is the stuff that might be under the radar, which this week includes: Adam Resurrected, Dark Streets, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Timecrimes, What Doesn't Kill You, Where God Left His Shoes, While She Was Out, and Wendy and Lucy. For the details, read on!

Wendy and Lucy (pictured)
What it is: A quiet drama about a penniless woman (Michelle Williams) whose car breaks down in rural Oregon while she's heading West to find a job. Lucy is the name of her dog and traveling companion. The film is not, as I previously believed, a biopic about the red-haired girl from the fast food place and Linus' older sister.
What they're saying: Cinematical raved about it at Cannes earlier this year, and 89% of the critics at Rotten Tomatoes agree. The consensus is that it's a tender, beautifully shot, emotionally intimate little film.
Where it's playing: New York City (Film Forum), Los Angeles (Laemmle Sunset 5).
More info: The official site has a list of release dates for a few dozen other cities.

Some people may consider the New York Film Festival a simple "Best Of" sort of event, but the fact that it compiles selections from earlier film fests and merely showcases them in a competition-free program is what I love about it. For those of us New Yorkers who can't always make it to the highlands of Utah and Colorado or the exotic seaside locales of Italy and Southern France, it's nice to know that major festival highlights will likely make their way to Lincoln Center in late September, early October.

This year, the lineup for the 46th NYFF is being noted for its inclusion of films that previously screened at Cannes back in May. Even Steven Soderbergh's four-hour Che (aka The Argentine and Guerilla), which played to mixed reactions in France, even while picking up a best actor prize for star Benicio Del Toro, has been given a spot. Also featured are Cannes leftovers Waltz With Bashir, Wendy and Lucy, Grand Prix-winner Gomorrah and Clint Eastwood's Changeling, which stars Angelina Jolie and has the honor of being NYFF's centerpiece film. Opening the festival is the Palm d'Or winner The Class, while the closing film is Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, which premieres a few weeks prior at the Venice Film Festival.

Other exciting big name films include Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky, Wong Kar-Wai's Ashes of Time: Redux, Lucretia Martel's The Headless Woman and Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours. Surprisingly, Charlie Kaufman's Synechdoche, New York, which screened at Cannes, is New York appropriate and is scheduled to open in October, is missing from the lineup.

The complete list of NYFF selections, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, can be found after the jump:

Director Kelly Reichardt's much-anticipated follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2006 fest circuit hit, Old Joy, continues to show Reichardt's remarkable gift for classically simple, deeply engaging storytelling. Wendy and Lucy is the story of Wendy (Michelle Williams), a down-on-her-luck girl who's hoping to turn things around for herself with a summer job at a fishing cannery in Alaska.

Wendy's making the trek from Indiana to Alaska in her beat-up Honda, accompanied only by her dog, Lucy, and about $600 to make the entire trip. When her car breaks down in a small Oregon town, Wendy is forced to make a series of increasingly difficult choices, and to rely upon the kindness (or not) of strangers to resolve her plight.

I'll have a full review up of Kelly Reichardt's new film, Wendy and Lucy, up later, but a quick note on tonight's screening of the film. Reichardt made 2006's critically acclaimed Old Joy, and Wendy and Lucy was one of the films I was most looking forward to checking out here at Cannes.

The big movies are great, but the joy of seeing a smaller film like this at a fest like Cannes is one of the best parts of attending this festival. All I'll say for now is that I liked Wendy and Lucy even better than Old Joy, and Michelle Williams's performance (which is pretty much the entire film) is great.

Williams, looking absolutely lovely in a lacy gold dress, showed up briefly in the Salle Debussy theater with the cast and crew to wave at the crowd from the stage. Audience response to the film was positive, though I didn't really expect any boos with that much of the cast, and particularly Williams herself, in attendance.

I don't believe she stayed for the screening, though -- the pic above was taken on the red carpet for the premiere of Adoration, which was screening tonight next door at the Lumiere (with Cinematical's James Rocchi covering the red carpet for IFC), so I expect she quietly slipped out when the lights went down to attend that.

Upcoming: Review of Atom Egoyan's Adoration; tomorrow is the screening of Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, NY, and the Sony Pictures Classic lunch/roundtable for Adoration, followed by Wim Wenders's The Palermo Shooting.